feuervogel | Spring break! Time for an update.

Update the first: I was accepted into the Linguistics MA program! So I will be in Georgia one additional year (and hopefully only the one). Ben doesn't want to move to Georgia, so we will be maintaining 2 residences. I found a new apartment that is closer to campus, has 2 bedrooms and a kitchen with actual cabinet space (though still not a lot of counter space) AND is almost $100/mo cheaper. Plus it has central HVAC. I look forward to it.

Update the second: The paper I submitted to a conference was accepted (as a poster)! I will be going to Austin April 20-23 to hang out with a bunch of Germanic linguists and tell them about how cool my research about German memers on tumblr is (and get them to tell me what else to look into). I applied for a travel award through the department, and I hope I hear about that soon, because I need to book the hotel room; if I don't get the grant, I will beg for floor space with a grad student at UT (or find a roommate).

Update the third: GERMANY! I bought my plane tickets and have an itinerary. I will be in Hamburg June 5-30, Dresden July 1-13, and Berlin July 13-17 (and fly out the 18th). While I'm in HH, I will be at the Goethe Institute, so I'll be spending the afternoon there and doing as much of their Kulturprogramm as interests me (tours, excursions, museums; probably not ballet, though if there's opera, I'll go). I don't know how much free time I'll have.

The class I was planning to take in Dresden was cancelled, so now I'm on my own for there. Because of the grant I'm getting, I have to make it related to my education as a teacher, so I'm going to keep a journal of how I can use various things to teach my students. I'm mostly going to go to Cold War-related sites (including a day trip to Leipzig), but also the usual Dresdner Altstadt stuff. (I'm going to have to go to the Oper for reasons relating to the story that's coming out in fall.) Ben is probably going to come join me for part of that week. I want to try to swing a trip out to the Sächsiche Schweiz, but I don't know how much time I'll have.

Then in Berlin I want to see an exhibit in the Alliierten Museum, probably stop in the Deutsches Historisches Museum to spend more time in the modern section than I had last time, and go to the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer, and if I have time/schedules work out, take another Berliner Unterwelten tour. I also want to try to see a Hertha training day (if they're there and not off in Turkey) and meet up with friends.

Classes and stuff: the 2 classes I have that aren't literature are going pretty well. Old Norse is fun, and the term paper, in which we translate something and justify our decisions, sounds like fun. Syntax seminar is harder, but also kind of fun, because we get to talk about language acquisition, and our term paper is partner work and will be about second language acquisition. Literature seminar is still overwhelming and I have no idea what I'm supposed to write about; the instructions are "choose something in the broad thematic we've discussed this semester" and we read a novel every week how the fuck do I even begin with that.

In fall I will have 4 classes again and be teaching 2 sections of 2nd semester German, I am going to die. But Phonetics & Phonology is supposed to be not a lot of work, and Language, Gender, and Culture may or may not be; Medieval Courtly Literature will be tough but fun because we're reading parallel texts of Middle High German and modern translation. Culture Seminar will be Jewish Studies because of who's teaching it, and we will have to read a lot of novels (but less than this semester, thank god).